Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Helm of Midnight

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Helm of Midnight by Marina J. Lostetter

8 reviews

enchantressreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am always on the look out for books I can get lost in. The Helm of Midnight definitely scratched that itch. The world is so interesting, and even the most minute of details are intriguing. I take notes for pretty much every book I read, but there were so many for this book.

I’m glad I accidentally requested the sequel from NetGalley or I might not have picked this book up.

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abbyschalupa's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow was this book good. Once I got about a third through, I couldn't put it down. The end gutted me. The mystery of the murderer was tense and kept me guessing. The writing and the atmosphere were both well done. While it took me a while to like the characters, once I did, I was invested. The more clues there are through the story, the more tense it gets. One thing not making this 5 stars is a scene towards the end where the main character endures and battles suicidal thoughts. Not something I try to read especially with such descriptive thoughts. Along with that, the first third of the book was rather slow. Once I got past that point, the story did pick up and the different POVs had me invested even with the different timelines. The characters could have felt more lifelike if there was more depth to them and their thoughts, instead of the simplistic descriptions of that made it more difficult to connect with them. Besides those things, I was lost in this story and completely enthralled in the chase and mystery behind the murderer.

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carolined314's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Gruesome murders in a fantasy/sci fi world with deep appreciation for the gods, genderqueer characters, and a strong sisterly bond that sustains. This murder mystery was fascinating, and the world just as much so.

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mar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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sageleafpark's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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readundancies's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Embrace the bleak people, because that is what we have been offered.

I'm not sure how articulate I can be about my feelings surrounding this dark fantasy novel, so in case this doesn't come across that clearly, I really enjoyed this novel. I loved all of it's dark and harrowing facets (of which there were many) in a way I haven't felt an affinity towards to for quite a long time. The fact that it's the first novel in a trilogy is not a deterrent at all, in fact, I'm excited for the sequel because this world is constructed in a way that it still feels mysterious and not fully ventured and I love the darkness that permeates everything within it.

I'm going to start with the world-building. While there was very much a French inspired vibe, our setting is not the most lush and descriptive. That has a lot to do with the fact that the world of Arkensyre doesn't have a lot of lush in it. It's a very bleak and harsh world that is steeped in a religious mythology that is also rather dark and daunting. We stay within the country of Lutador throughout the novel, specifically the capital, Lutador City, but the other nations are mentioned often, and their differing cultures andhow they co-mingle with one another is something I'm fully looking to be furthered explored as the trilogy progresses.

The religion and mythology of the Five Penalties and the gods that ruled over everything was strict and unrelenting. The combination of church and state was mesmerizing in how they blended and meshed with one another so seamlessly - it was a wonder to get to read how it all played out. And by the end, as a reader, you still don’t really know what role the Unknown means to play, or what the truth is behind their motivations with respect to intentions. For a third person multiple POV, there’s a lot of unreliable testimony and intentional misdirection and omitted context, but it’s executed so well.

There is also a hard magic system that interplays with the religion and politics of the world, and when specifically looking at the law and how it's governed and enforced with respect to the Watchsmen and Regulators and Martinets, you really got the feel that it was very deliberately structured. I really enjoyed learning about how the masks and gemstones could be utilized and imbued with emotions and then further manipulated by the echoes that inhabited them.

I also really enjoyed the overall writing within this. The writing really helped solidify the world-building because there was a brutality to the tone, a very tangible savagery to the diction and it made the whole vibe of the novel very dark and heavy and like danger was behind every corner. This story is written with a very fatalistic inclination towards death and blatantly bleak undertones of it’s ultimate inevitability. This also influenced the characterization: Krona had a very reluctant quality to her character, especially in her role as a Regulator. Melanie and her enchanted situation was riveting to read about but ultimately was saturated in poverty and the constant struggle to overcome those who would abuse her as a person so that they could use her as property. Thibaut was giving me all the Jaskier vibes from The Witcher and I was gobbling them up and stuffing them in my cheeks like a chipmunk saving up for winter because I knew his good humour was not going to last. There were happy moments, but they were few and far between and felt like they had to be earned, and I didn't mind at all because that dark bleakness really settled in a way that became all-consuming. And it was consistent throughout.

I will say that there were a few editing errors that were missed in this first publication which were irritating. And the vargers, which were giving me yao-guai vibes of the Fallout variety, were scary, but didn't quite fit in to the world-building because I feel like there's more behind them than meets the eye but nothing was really revealed about them. This is something I hope gets further explored as the trilogy progresses.

But as a whole? This was engrossing as heck. I’ve got all these thoughts and opinions and questions and I’m so wonderfully lost in the weeds in terms of whatever the overarching plot line this trilogy has deigned to take. It was entirely too easy to slip back into whenever I had picked it up again and it was strangely compelling in the way it almost forcibly dragged the reader alongside Krona to figure out what in the bloody fuck everyone’s deal was.

So bring on the sequel Marina Lostetter, my body is ready.

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lilies_library's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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janeivy11's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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